Some Tech Answers On A C5 Estate And Versions

[Bassrock]

Rear disks, check surfaces for unusal wear patterns, check caliper not touching or almost touching disk, this is a sign of galvanic corrosion between swinging arm mount and caliper, corrosion forces caliper away from mounting surface, bending caliper towards disk.

Sod to fix, as the bolts become extremely hard to undo, once you do eventually remove the caliper you have to file the caliper surface flat (remove corrosion), then "grind" corrosion from mounting surface, then (oh joy) put everything back together again (and the bolts will be a pain to line up and tighten), how do I know, I've just spent 8 soddin hours cleaning both the rears on mine !!!!%^£%^£%%$^£$%^£$%^£$%^£%.

 

Rear window (Estate), check if the glass window lifts up using switch on rear wiper assembly, if it does great, if it doesn't don't worry it's a pain anyway, many have a will of there own and would open when driving down the road, i've disconnected the actuator that operates mine.

 

Lights, brake lights especially, the bulb holders are crap (change them), they also corrode, so check all rear lights.

 

Front lights ,ask how often the halogens blow, fix (fit 360 led side light bulbs) cured my halogens popping. (oh halogens can be changed by yourself, it's just a tight squeeze.

 

Check driver and passenger footwells for signs of dampness, I have a solution for that too (if someone want's to know I'll write war and peace).

 

Check plastic engine cover under bonnet one or more of the 4 studs holding the cover will be broken, citroen charge £5 a pop for areplacemt, I've found good quality super glue works.

 

More:-

 

Check tyres especially fronts for uneven tyre wear, tracking could be out.

 

Find a C5 that does not have "solid wheel hubs" (eg. no hole in centre of wheel), absolute sod to find places that have the proper adaptor to balance these wheels, even if they do I doubt they do it properly.

 

When test driving make sure no steering wobble, could be wheel balance prob or if braking a disk warped/caliper corrosion problem.

 

When turning left or right make sure no vibration as this could be worn track rods (inner).

 

Check the handbrake releases properly, the lever should have no slackness, if it does one of the front caliper handbrake mechanisms is gubbed.

 

I'm tired sfter 8 hours of caliper bashing, if i think of anything later, will let you know.

[paul.h]

Guess you have seen the Problems and Fixes pinned note on the rear brakes. At least once the loctite has been removed from the calipers the job will be a lot quicker next time.

[Bassrock]

Guess you have seen the Problems and Fixes pinned note on the rear brakes. At least once the loctite has been removed from the calipers the job will be a lot quicker next time.

 

Thank you Paul

 

Yip, read the posts, if you ever find a "simple" way of removing the loctite, especially when it's impossible to remove the bolts through the calipers (within a reasonable timeframe), then I will be most impressed.